The ancient Greek historian Thucydides famously claimed that his work
would be ‘a possession for all time’: not just the history of a single
war between the Athenians and the Spartans, but a guide to the way that
the world works, and especially to politics and war. He was right. Over
the last two hundred years, Thucydides has been one of the most
frequently quoted ancient writers. His ideas have influenced historians,
politicians, international relations experts and soldiers; all agree
that his work is useful and important.

Thucydides does not offer simple lessons, but a training course in
analysis and deliberation. He demands that his readers follow his
narrative of events and think about how things could have turned out
differently; he asks them to listen to opposing arguments and to weigh
up the issues – and then to think about how those arguments relate what
actually happened. He shows how the world is complicated – and how we
can make sense of that complexity. In brief, he aims to help his readers
to develop the skills that every citizen of a democracy needs.

The lessons that Thucydides offers are needed today more than ever.
The problem is that his work is complex and difficult, even in the
original Greek – and of course most readers have to rely on
translations, often of dubious quality. The aim of the T3 project (Thinking Through Thucydides, or Thinking, Through Thucydides)
is to make key passages from Thucydides' work accessible to as many
people as possible, setting his words in context and explaining
significant points. These passages can then serve as a resource for
thinking about the world and our place in it, a starting-point for
debate about some of the most vital issues that face us today.

The project is at a very early stage of development; on this webpage
you will find one sample passage of Thucydides (II.43, from the Funeral
Oration) along with contextual material and key questions to discuss, to
show you what we have in mind. We plan to develop this resource in
partnership with schools, so that it can serve as a resource for the
study of both Classical Civilisation and Citizenship, but we hope that
this will be of interest to everyone. In due course we will be
introducing a blog where you can post your comments and suggestions, and
get involved in debates about the significance of passages; in the
meantime, if you have any comments, or if you would like to be involved
in developing this project, please contact Neville Morley
(n.d.g.morley(at)bris.ac.uk).

Monday, July 30, 2012

This journal is sponsored by the American Association for History
and Computing (AAHC), organized at a conference held in Cincinnati in
January 1996. The AAHC aspires to promote and develop interest in the
use of computers in all types of historical study at every level, in
both teaching and research. We believe that computers and computing are
rapidly changing important elements of the work of historians and
students of history, constituting a major transformation in the way
knowledge is created and communicated. A major goal of this journal is
to help define useful standards to maximize the utility of computers in
historical studies.

We welcome contributions from those interested in issues or resources
related to history and computing. This journal contains peer-reviewed
articles intended as a contribution to this field, and some
peer-reviewed works-in-progress intended to solicit thoughtful
criticism.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Codepoints.net is dedicated to all the characters, that are defined in
the Unicode Standard. Theoretically,
these should be all characters ever used. In practice Unicode
has 110181 codepoints defined at the moment, mapping characters
from Egyptian Hieroglyphs
to Dingbats and Symbols.

All codepoints are arranged in 16 so-called
planes. These planes
are further divided into several blocks with
Basic Latin
being the first one.
You can browse one by one by starting with the first codepoint,
0000 or
search for a specific
character. If you’re not fully sure, try
“Find My Codepoint”, to narrow down the candidates.
Or maybe you are more daring and want
a random codepoint?

The content on this website reflects the information found inThe Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 6.1.0,
(Mountain View, CA: The Unicode Consortium, 2012. ISBN 978-1-936213-02-3)http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.1.0/,
which happens to be the most relevant version of the Unicode Standard
as of June, 2012.

An Inventory and Research Guide for understanding the Cultural Landscapes of the Altai Mountains of Mongolia

A Resource dedicated to the investigation of ancient Altai cultures through

A digital archive of monuments

Interactive maps for analyzing the distribution of monument typologies

Texts, images, and maps for understanding the region,
its physical character, its cultural history, and the interrelationships
of monuments and landscape

Support for this project was provided by the National
Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency. Any views, findings,
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not
necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.

The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home at the time AWOL was launched. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

AWOL is the successor to Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, founded at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago in 1994. Together they represent the longest sustained effort to map the development of open digital scholarship in any discipline.